


The New Rules of Engagement

by Paper0wl



Series: Rod and Shield [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03e12 Jus In Bello, Gen, Shield trumps FBI, everybody freak out, government ninjas, no I'm not joking about this, obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:53:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1521794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paper0wl/pseuds/Paper0wl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>FBI Special Agent Victor Henriksen finally caught the WInchesters. He should be celebrating, but there are two agents from SHIELD in his office claiming dibs.</p>
<p>This was not how he pictured the evening going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New Rules of Engagement

As annoyed as he was for the lack of resources available in the small town, it wasn’t enough to overcome the vindicated smug feeling he was experiencing for finally catching the Winchester brothers. Groves was even sending a chopper so they couldn’t escape again. Victor felt the need to gloat. And watching the brothers look so out of sorts was very gratifying. Almost as much as the sound of the approaching helicopter.  


But the agents that arrived weren’t FBI.  


“What’s all this?” he asked, looking over the blonde man and dark-haired woman in matching black T-shirts and cargo pants. They weren’t civilians, that was certain. The man was well muscled in all the right places and was observant to a degree that _had_ to be trained, and the woman stood in a stance that bore more than a little resemblance to military parade rest and similar stances he’d learned back in the Academy.  


It was the woman who handed him a stack of paperwork. “When I find out who screwed up the paperwork, I’m sticking them on my team until they won’t do it again.”  


“Uh, how would that help?” he asked in confusion.  


Her grin was predatory. “We’d leave them too scared of us to ever do something like that again.”  


Victor shook his head. “Who are you, why are you here, and what’s this?” He lifted the papers in his hands.  


“Agents Lux and Barton, SHIELD.” They showed their badges. “That is our authorization to take the Winchesters.”  


“Please tell me this is a joke.”  


“Sorry, no. The Winchesters are ours. It’s all in the paperwork.”  


He flipped through the pages, trying to find out what the hell was going on with his case. “Where’s Groves?”  


“Dead.”  


He jerked his head up. “What do you mean ‘dead’?” Victor demanded angrily. “I just spoke to him this evening!”  


Lux shrugged. “Coroner thought it might have been a heart attack.”  


“A heart attack,” he repeated in disbelief.  


“Yeah. He had a stressful life.” She didn’t seem particularly concerned.  


Victor gritted his teeth. They barged in, demanding custody of _his_ prisoners, and now he wondered if they’d killed his boss. Hell, maybe they were in cahoots with the Winchesters. Next thing you know, they’d try to convince him Groves was a werewolf or some shit like that and _needed_ to be killed. He turned his attention back to the mess of papers before he lost his temper; if they were who they claimed to be and _did_ have the proper authorization, losing his temper at them was a quicker way to kill his career than obsessing over the Winchesters.  


“The paperwork seems to be in order,” he admitted grudgingly. “But you’ll understand that I have to call around to verify this. The Winchesters have escaped before.”  


Lux snorted and Barton shook his head. “Not a problem, Special Agent Henriksen. Call whoever you need to – they’ll tell you that those boys are ours, and will never be your problem again.”

 

He must have called half of the goddamn FBI and more than a few of the SHIELD bosses as well. No one could (or would) give him any details, just confirmation that Lux and her so-called “authorization” were the real deal.  


Victor was practically growling in frustration when he was forced to hand over the keys to both the cell and the shackles.  


She smiled at him in conciliation and had the audacity to thank him before announcing she didn’t need his help and headed over to the cells, Barton at her heels. Lux was clearly the one in charge in that pair, even if he couldn’t see a weapon on her person.  


Certain she was underestimating the danger the Winchesters posed, Victor followed them. And he had to force himself _not_ to reach for his gun when the prisoners recognized the agents.  


“Kyria!” Sam said. “What are you doing here?”  


Lux smirked as she unlocked the cell. “Saving your asses. Again.”  


“How exactly?” Dean asked with a sidelong glance at Victor, who scowled back at him.  


“You’ve met them before?” he asked in a clipped voice.  


Lux leaned casually against the metal bars, looking over at the FBI agent herself. “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure you misunderstood me when I said the Winchesters are ours, not that I bothered to explain properly, I admit. Catch,” she added, tossing the younger brother the key to the shackles. Victor stared in disbelief, but before he could say anything she continued. “When I said they’re ours, I meant they work for us: Sam and Dean here are civilian consultants with SHIELD.”  


“We are?” Dean blurted, pausing in his unlocking of the chains.  


It was Barton’s turn to snort. “You think we give badges to every shmuck we save?”  


Dean shrugged. “Certainly seems to be your track record,” he said, tossing the keys back. “We’re really free to go?”  


“Yeah, this shouldn’t have happened at all. I got Fury to issue the paperwork to clear you months ago. When I find the person who lost the paperwork, or misfiled it, or whatever the fuck happened, I am going to make them regret it. You’re just really lucky I priority flagged any news updates relating to you two. As it was we had to commandeer the FBI’s chopper to get here.”  


“What do you mean ‘clear them’?” Victor demanded. “These two are hardened, delusional, dangerous murderers!”  


“Only two out of four, I’m afraid,” Lux retorted, still unconcerned. “There’s been a lot of conflicting evidence surrounding the Winchesters and SHIELD’s working on a new unit to handle stuff like this. I recruited these two personally last year, along with a few others.”  


“A new unit?” Sam asked. “Is that what happened to the others? How’s Lily doing?”  


“Yep, and better, which you’d know if you bothered to keep in touch,” Lux chided.  


“We were supposed to keep in touch?” Dean said. “Seriously? I thought the government didn’t want to be involved in – our stuff?”  


“Are you the one that paid for Ellen to rebuild the Roadhouse?” Sam asked.  


Lux smiled. “Okay, one, what I said was SHIELD only got involved by proxy when they got me. Alec’s little epsilon black showdown made them realize just me wasn’t really enough. Which is why, secondly, yes, we did help with the Roadhouse. Ellen and Ash have consultant status too – who better to help us organize hunters than people like them?”  


“Bobby in on it, too?” Sam sounded curious and impressed.  


Victor wanted to know just how Agents Lux and Barton knew the Winchesters so well. It sounded like they knew a lot of people the Winchesters had semi-regular contact with. That sort of thing would have been very useful while hunting them.  


“He gets paid for research he’d be doing anyway.”  


“You’re _paying_ him?” Dean exclaimed.  


“You get salaries, too,” Lux pointed out, rather smugly. “And support teams. Oh, and you can stop using those fake IDs like I told you to when I gave you the SHIELD ones. You’re _real_ government agents now.”  


“I’m really hoping this is some kind of sick prank and you didn’t _seriously_ hire two Satan-worshipping, nutbag killers the FBI spent a long time trying to put behind bars,” Victor said through clenched teeth.  


“I was wondering how long it’d be before you asked that.”  


Dean’s eyebrows rose. “So you’re baiting FBI now? I thought that was my thing.”  


“She’s been bored,” Barton commented from the edge of the room.  


“How do you get away with hiring murderers?!” Victor demanded, having had enough of being alternatively mocked and ignored.  


The smile Lux gave him wasn’t a particularly pleasant one. “Let me reassure me, Henriksen, if the Winchesters were in fact Satan-worshipping, nutbag killers, I would not have hired them. I spent most of my life plagued by Satan-worshippers and have a very low tolerance for them as a result. In fact, when the Winchesters assisted us on a case last year, it was to _stop_ a particularly ardent Satan-worshipper.”  


“That’s one way of putting it,” Dean muttered audibly.  


“Yeah?” Victor said. He shook his head with more than a little agitation. This night was not going remotely how he pictured it. “What the hell is going on?”  


“I’m kinda curious myself,” replied Lux. “How did you manage to get yourselves captured? I thought you were better than that.”  


The brothers exchanged glances again. “Bela,” Dean practically spat.  


“Bela . . . what? I seriously doubt we’re talking about Lugosi’s ghost here, so who is this person and why don’t you like them?”  


“Bela Talbot,” Sam explained. “She, um, knows the, uh, stuff we deal with and uses it to swindle money. Recently she’s been trying to get the Colt.”  


“She’s a thief and a con-artist and we never told her we don’t have it,” Dean added.  


Lux’s eyes widened. “She wants the Colt. Damn. Either someone wants to kill something or someone’s trying for the Gate again. Either way, I’m glad I traded you for the gun and had it destroyed.”  


“You _destroyed_ it?” Dean exclaimed.  


She lifted an eyebrow. “You saw what that thing opens. I wasn’t leaving it around for someone to try again.”  


“Good point.”  


Sam meanwhile shuddered. “Yeah, let’s never do that again. I have nightmares where he shoots you and everything comes rushing out before Ellen and Bobby close the door.”  


Lux’s shrug appeared nonchalant, but her face was tight enough to indicate her own worry. “It was closer than I would have liked, but we got the best possible outcome all things considered.” She glanced around the room with furrowed eyes and Victor suddenly realized her partner was gone.  


As if the thought had summoned him, Barton soon returned dragging a struggling blonde woman with him.  


“Bela,” Dean identified with a patently false smile. “How not so nice to see you.”  


“Interesting,” Lux remarked, staring intently at the intruder.  


“Still on the hunt for the Colt?” Sam asked. “It’s gone.”  


Bela paled. “What do you mean ‘gone’?”  


“I disassembled the gun and had the pieces destroyed,” Lux explained.  


Bela paled further. “I needed that gun!”  


“It wouldn’t do a thing for your contract.” Lux shook her head.  


“Contract?” Sam repeated. “You mean, like a deal? She made a crossroads deal?”  


“Yep,” Lux answered. “And it looks like she’s got about three months left.”  


“Three months? I thought those things were supposed to be ten years?” Dean asked.  


“It was,” Lux said flatly.  


“So she was what, twelve, when she made the deal?”  


“Fourteen, I believe.”  


Dean narrowed his eyes at the thief. “Is this what that ghost thing was about? You made a deal to knock off a family member?”  


“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bela protested, trying to break free of the hold the SHIELD agent had her in. Barton inclined his head to his partner who sighed and wrapped a zip tie around her wrists. Lux then stepped back and snapped her fingers.  


Victor heard a strangled cry and as he stumbled backwards he realized it was his voice. Black lettering crawled over every inch of Bela’s skin.  


“H-how’d you do that?” he stammered.  


Her smile was nothing less than predatory. “I believe this is the sort of thing you classified as the, uh, Satan-worshipping, nutbag killer stuff. Unfortunately, it’s all real. I’m not human, in case you were wondering.”  


“Christo!” Bela shouted fearfully, struggling harder.  


Lux just smirked, while Barton shook his head.  


“They’re not demons,” Sam told the thief just before the sheriff and deputy ran in with their guns drawn, having heard Bela’s shout, and were highly surprised by the loose prisoners and the extremely tattooed young woman. And, probably, Victor just standing there in shock.  


“What’s going on here?” Sheriff Dobbs demanded, unsure of whom exactly to aim his gun at.  


“We’re broadening your world view,” Lux declared in patently friendly tones. She snapped her figures and the writing on Bela’s skin vanished. “If you behave,” she informed the thief, “I might be able to amend your contract.”  


“You can do that?” Sam asked in disbelief.  


The SHIELD agent shrugged. “It’s not something I ever tried before, but I got enough power that it should work. Maybe. You know, before I joined SHIELD, I never tried to confront demons; I either straight up fought, or ran, or both. Now, I seem to on a collision course with all the heavy-hitters.”  


“Demons,” repeated the Sheriff. “You’re talking about demons like they’re real.”  


“They are,” retorted Lux.  


“Right. You know, that’s the sort of thing Henriksen said the Winchesters believed in. And now they’re out of their cell. Which makes me less than inclined to believe you.”  


“If it makes you feel any better, we’re still unarmed,” Dean began, spreading his arms.  


Unfortunately Deputy Amichi had a nervous trigger finger and fired at him.  


Sam and Dean hit the deck, Bela did so less voluntarily as Barton dropped her to pull his gun on the deputy; Victor also drew his weapon, though he kept it aimed at the floor when he noticed where the shot had gone.  


The bullet hung in the air encased in a flickering web of white-blue lightning that trailed from Lux. She offered a self-deprecating smile and the bullet dropped in the floor with a muted _clang_ as the lightning vanished.  


“I did say I wasn’t human,” she offered as everyone got back to their feet, Bela with a glare at, well, everyone. 

It was only as the guns were all put away that Victor noticed the nervous secretary watching from a doorway, clutching her rosary like her life depended on not letting it go.  


This was all giving him a headache, but, “I’m beginning to believe that.”

 

It turned out that while Lux and Barton were in fact members of a wide-ranging, peacekeeping agency that operated internationally, Lux had gotten shoehorned into being said agency’s primary sub-director for a recently created branch that focused on things that went bump in the night.  


“ _What_ is the name of your division?” Victor Henriksen interrupted, certain he hadn’t heard her correctly.  


“N.I.N.J.A.T.,” she repeated, trying and failing to keep a straight face. “No, I’m Not Joking About This.”  


Dean Winchester cracked up laughing. “You’re a government ninja – that’s even better than a demonic Bond villain!”  


Any other day, he thought that would have gotten everyone present to laugh as well. As it was, he was pretty certain they were too much in shock to enjoy the humor, himself included.  


The Winchesters _were_ actually monster hunters, like they’d always claimed, and they were also currently employed by SHIELD – to do exactly what they’d already been doing, but with back-up, pay, and less lying to local LEOs. And Lux was _still_ pissed about the screw-up with the paperwork that should have informed the FBI that the Winchesters were essentially off-limits.  


Oh, and he’d been right.  


She did claim Groves had been a monster, although possessed by a demon hadn’t been his first guess. Also, they hadn’t actually killed Groves, just the demon. But Groves apparently had died months ago and only the demon’s presence kept the body walking around. She added that Groves probably _had_ died of a heart attack – just not last night.  


That left only Bela Talbot, con artist and thief of a supernatural variety. One who had apparently sold her soul when she was fourteen in order to kill her parents. She refused to say why, as did Lux, but Victor had been in law enforcement long enough to know how to read between the lines; he almost wished her father was still alive so he could kill him himself.  


Of course, Bela refused to be cooperative almost as a matter of course.  


“I get that you’ve had a fucked-up life, really, I do. But I can _help_ you with your deal, _if you’ll let me!_ ” Lux exclaimed, rapidly losing patience.  


“There ain’t a damn thing anyone can do without that gun,” the thief retorted, which was progress, because she wasn’t denying the existence of a deal anymore.  


(And wasn’t that a fun thing to wrap his head around – people could in fact sell their souls at a crossroad to a demon.)  


Lux actually _growled_. “So you’ll believe a demon who wants to open a Hellgate to start the end of the world, but not the person who stopped them from doing just that last year?”  


“The world almost _ended_?” squeaked Nancy.  


Lux visibly restrained herself. “I met the Winchesters when one of Hell’s top demons attempted to open a gateway to Hell to release _the_ most powerful demon, whose presence is required in order to kick-off the Apocalypse. The demon died and as the Colt is the only key to that Gate, I had it destroyed before someone else could try to get Lilith out of Hell that way.”  


“Lilith?” Bela repeated in recognition, before catching herself and clenching her jaw shut.  


“Yes, as in the Lilith who holds all the crossroad contracts. But since I’m positive she’s not topside, that would mean you heard the name from . . . Crowley?” Bela started and the SHIELD agent smirked. “King of the Crossroads,” Lux explained before anyone could ask the question on the tips of their tongues.  


“So you can name-drop,” Bela said acidly. “Doesn’t mean you can help me.”  


The predatory grin was back. “Oh, honey, I haven’t _begun_ to name-drop.” With a surreptitious glance at the station occupants, Lux walked over to where Bela was tied to a chair and whispered something in her ear.  


Bela went white.  


The Winchesters exchanged glances again before glancing over at the agent. “Was that –“  


“Yeah. Establishing my credentials. In the right circles, I am _very_ well known.”  


Victor squashed down his curiosity. Anything that could terrify the con artist was something he was sure he didn’t want to know. He was going to have enough trouble sleeping from everything else he’d learned today. Last night?  


Not everyone kept such tight reins on their curiosity. “Who _are_ you?” Nancy asked with more than a little fear.  


Lux gently shook her head. “You’re better off not knowing.”  


“Yeah,” Bela choked. “You really don’t want to know.”  


He didn’t know when his headache had mutation into exhaustion, but realizing an accomplished thief who specialized in the supernatural and had sold her soul was _terrified_ of a government agent was just about the final straw.  


Thankfully said government agent recognized that. “I’m sorry you were all dragged into this; I understand that most people prefer not to know this sort of thing is real. With Azazel dead and Lilith trapped, there isn’t a bigwig around to organize demons much, so you should be safe. But if you do see any signs of demon activity, there’s a few numbers you can call.”  


Two government agents and two former criminals proceeded to explain about things like sulfur and black eyes, before getting in a rather complicated explanation of SHIELD’s ongoing efforts to organize the loose network of hunters that existed. Lux provided numbers for a bar that served as a gathering place for hunters, a mechanic who spent half his days researching things that made nightmares look cheesy, and the extension for SHIELD’s NINJAT division.  


Sheriff Dobbs wasn’t what anyone would call _happy_ about letting them leave with an undocumented prisoner, but apparently when Lux “established her credentials”, Talbot started believing she might be able to help with her deal and didn’t put up too much of a fuss when the agents brought her out to the chopper.  


Henriksen never believed he would just stand by and watch the Winchesters drive off in their muscle car, but that’s what he did.  


“I think I need a drink.”


End file.
